President Uhuru Kenyatta met Central Kenya leadership at the weekend in a charm offensive to cement his position, win back lost confidence and convince his compatriots that his pet project - the BBI - is a worthwhile endeavour, as the clock ticks away on his presidency.

Yet, whatever premium was to be extracted from the Sagana State Lodge meetings with local leaders is muted by growing disaffection in the region precipitated majorly by the predatory nature of our politics and the chaotic slow-motion implosion of the president’s Jubilee Party and his imminent departure.

Sensing that his Rift Valley backyard was not completely sold out on Project Uhuru in 2002, former President Daniel arap Moi called a meeting of Rift Valley political leadership, professionals and university students (I was in attendance).

The unease among the Kalenjins was that the big shadow (urweet), as one speaker put it, was moving. “Who will shield us from the elements…? Mzee, did you consider what it meant to propose a young, untested man (Uhuru) to take over your ‘kirunguut’?”

All the while Mzee was listening unmoved, as speaker after speaker tried to question his decision, some imploring him to stay on a little longer.

Moi spoke like the older, wiser, experienced and reassuring man he was. “Do you think I will leave my people vulnerable?”

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He forestalled an impending humiliation in his backyard in the ensuing elections, though Uhuru lost resoundingly to Mwai Kibaki.

That is where Uhuru finds himself. It falls on him to play his cards well. Simply put; he needs a crash course on how to do damage control this late in the day.

Here is the catch: The President’s defenders tout BBI as his way of securing the interests of Central Kenya and the larger country, perhaps far better than the calming words of President Moi.

But all you hear around are doomsday scenarios. Is it that little has been done to get the critical mass behind the project?

Indeed, BBI sounded like what the doctor had recommended. We needed something to hold the bolts and the hinges so that the country does not blow up every five years. But then it falls short of expectations.

Hearing the President sell BBI and its supposed gains, one wonders whether he is talking about the same document in our possession.

Why don’t the hoped-for gains and the “constitutional moment” resonate well with many? Is it the fact that it does not transport our imaginations beyond him, Raila Odinga and William Ruto, or the feeling that it is nothing more than an act of self-preservation? Is it that it does not wrestle the ogre in the room: What to do in future to minimise violent electoral contestations and thereby mute the unhelpful notion that to be in government offers one an advantage; and it-is-our-turn-to-eat moment?

Ousting poll officials, as was done in 2016, proved inadequate. BBI does not offer a different route. It obsesses with the same old tried-and-tested formula.

Ultimately what the country needs - not just the people from the president’s region – are strong institutions. BBI offers little of that. Increasing the number of MPs in line with the one-man-one-shilling mantra does not guarantee more accountability, nor does appointing ministers from the MPs promise a bigger national cake. Neither will a Big Tent government cure political intolerance.

Bad policies

To firmly secure his legacy, Uhuru owes it to himself and the country to leave behind institutions that can “bend without breaking” under political pressure no matter who becomes president. In a nutshell, what is needed is a reversal of the bad policies of his administration.

If nothing, those will strengthen our democracy and improve the government’s ability to get things done.

The Jubilee administration holds the record of offending every institution in the land. Since co-opting the hapless, acquiescent Legislature in 2013, it has ridden roughshod and sought to delegitimise other institutions.

They started with the media: The Government Advertising Agency - set up while Fred Matiang’i was at the ICT Ministry, has done so much harm to the media than even the infamous Standard Raid of 2006.

Media houses that publish negative stories about government get slapped down and adverts are withdrawn. It then rounded up on the civil society and NGOs, then, lastly, the Judiciary.

Whatever guarantees less of the political conflicts and more of policy disagreement and a contest of ideas, which is more forward-looking and liberating, is welcome.

Sagana III was called to heal the self-inflicted trauma from the constant sniping within the Jubilee Party and the weakening of critical institutions that underpin democracy. It need not have happened.

-Mr Kipkemboi is an Associate Editor at The Standard